Loserville, U.S.A?

The folks at Forbes Magazine have come out with a top ten list of America's "Most Miserable Sports Cities," and guess what? The Twin Cities come in at number 10.

The criteria for this rather unscientific list starts with the record of those teams that have performed worst in the championship games or series of the four major sports (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL), followed by a look at records in semifinal and earlier playoff rounds. Weight is also given to each city's ratio of total seasons to championships. Cities that have lost a franchise were given bonus points. Atlanta tops the list, with it's teams combing for one championship in 142 total seasons. It appears that the Vikings four Super Bowl defeats, and the Twins' recent playoff failures, put us on the list. But it should also be noted that Forbes is the same magazine that ranked Kevin McHale as the top GM in sports.

Miserable? I don't really sense a lot of misery around these parts. More like complacency. Which brings me to the Twins two recent losses to the Tigers. I was watching the Fox North post-game show after Monday's 11-9 debacle, and was chagrined at the tone of the coverage, which was along the lines of "gee, those Tigers sure had their hitting shoes on tonight. You knew they were going to wake up eventually." Yes, and it also helps when your pitchers are throwing the ball right down the middle of the plate and your outfielders are turning doubles into triples. (And by the way, when was the last time a team had two triples in an inning?)

One other thing. Would it kill Gardy to bring Nathan in before the 9th inning? I know the "rules" about maintaining a pecking order in the bullpen and using your closer on the road, but God forbid your $11 million closer have to work more than one inning.

But I digress. Are we a miserable sports community? or just mired in mediocrity?

Comments (2)

I don't get how we finish behind Denver when they've won two Super Bowls and a Stanley Cup since the last time the Twins won it all.....Cleveland should also have been much higher on the list....when Forbes does sports they never get it right...remember when they declared Kevin McHale was the best GM in sports a couple of years ago?